


as the stars all fall away

by tocourtdisaster



Category: Lost
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gap Filler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-24
Updated: 2010-01-24
Packaged: 2017-10-06 16:12:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tocourtdisaster/pseuds/tocourtdisaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>She's crying when Charlie wakes her up, his hands firm on her shoulders and his eyes full of worry.</i> Set in early Season 2.</p>
            </blockquote>





	as the stars all fall away

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the Peter Himmelman song of the same name.

It takes a long while, but her memories of the island after the crash but before her abduction eventually come back. The first to come back is of peanut butter, how he went out of his way to try to make her a little more comfortable while they still waited for the rescue planes to come swooping over the horizon at any moment.

She remembers how he helped her through her false labor as she watches him play with her son one evening as the sun is sinking into the ocean. He is so good with the baby. Part of her wonders if he’s had any practice with children of his own while the jealous part of her brain never wants to know. All that matters is that they are a family now.

She thinks it’s a nightmare at first when she remembers what Ethan did to him. How he was hung from a tree and left for dead, left to show that Ethan was serious about not wanting to be followed. She remembers how he fought at first, how he tried to get free, how he stopped struggling when Ethan threatened to hurt her and her baby.

She remembers how _he_ apologized to _her_ for not being able to keep her safe before Ethan knocked him unconscious and tied the blindfold around his eyes and the noose around his neck. She remembers crying so hard that she thought she was going to vomit because Charlie was dead because he was trying to protect her and didn’t he know that she wasn’t worth his life?

She’s crying when Charlie wakes her up, his hands firm on her shoulders and his eyes full of worry. She throws her arms around him and she knows she’s probably crushing him, but she just needs to feel him right now, feel him breathing, his heart beating through the material of his shirt.

“You died.” Her breath is coming more evenly now, her heart rate slowing down as she leaves the nightmare behind. “You died trying to protect me from Ethan.”

She can feel his shaky breath against her neck, stirring her hair. “Who told you? Jack or Kate?”

“Neither.” She can feel his whiskers tickle her skin as he presses his face against the side of her neck. “I remembered.”

“I hoped you would’ve forgotten that forever.” She threads her fingers through the hair on the back of his head and rubs his scalp, remembers how much it helped her when her mother did that for her when she was upset as a child. “I’m a selfish bastard.”

He tries to pull away from her but she holds him fast. He needs this. She needs this. _They_ need this. “Why would you think that?”

“Because when I killed Ethan, I told Jack that I did it for you. And that’s partially true. But I really killed him because I couldn’t live with myself if I let him take you away again.” He leans all his weight against her and she can’t support him for long and they end up laying down, still wrapped up in each other. “Because I couldn’t live without you.”

She doesn’t know what to say so she doesn’t say anything, just keeps holding him. The sun is starting to peek over the horizon and she thinks he’s fallen asleep until she feels his fingers twitch against her back.

“I just wanted to protect you. That’s all I’ve wanted to do since I first saw you after the crash.” The others in the camp are starting to stir; she can hear them over the dull crashing of the waves against the beach. “I wish I would’ve done a better job at it.”

She sighs, her arms pulling him even closer for a moment before she pulls back enough to see his face. She waits until his eyes meet hers before she speaks. “You saved me, Charlie.” She brings her hands up to cup his face, her lips gently meeting his for a moment before she brings her forehead to rest against his.

“You saved me.”


End file.
